Destroying the Myth of Not Enough Time to Study for the PE Exam

It’s not even the end of the year, children across the world have yet to be excited (or disappointed) from the jolly fat man sneaking in their house and dropping off presents, and many people have only just found out results from the October 2015 PE exam… so why the hell am I hearing that people don’t think they don’t have enough time to study for the April exam?

Photo Credit to Imgur.

Now it’s possible that I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. I did make the tragic decision to start going to the gym again the other day. After a few max-out sets, everything is sore. Everything.

But I digress.

How much potential study time is really left?

Anyways, to figure out if this is all in my head, let’s do a little number crunching shall we.

It’s December 22st, ironically on a post about time it’s the winter solstice (or close there to time Nazis), and for those of you who don’t speak astronomer that’s the shortest day of the year. The next chance for a PE exam is April 15th, good ole tax day.

Here’s how those facts correlate into actual numbers:

8 Months

4 Weeks

115 Days

2760 Hours

I could go on but I’m not sure there’s any benefit in you knowing that it’s just shy of 10 million seconds.

How much time do you really need to study?

So how does this matter to you, well, that all depends on the study philosophy you ascribe to.

If you listen to the traditional PE exam study time guidelines, they say you’ll need to study just over 300 hours. Personally, I believe that most people can pass with a lot less studying but by concentrating a 100 hours where it really counts.

Even by the most ridiculous of terms, you’re only studying just over 10% of the time (and at best just 3.5% of the time).

Again, real metrics is often better than manufactured percentages:

300 Hour Strategy

100 Hour Strategy

Daily Requirements

2 hours 40 mins

55 mins

Weekly Requirements

18 hours 40 mins

6 hours 25 mins

TOTAL

307.1 Hours

105.4 Hours

In this sort of an arrangement, it doesn’t seem all bad does it? Well, maybe for that one on the left… but the other, that’s completely manageable.

How to find the time to study?

Photo Credit to QuickMeme.com

You can’t possibly tell me that you don’t waste at least 6.5 hours catching up on the latest Archer season on Netflix each week.

How about a night out with friends, think you put in at least 3-4 hours a sitting? Multiply that by at least 2 happy hours a week and you’ve got more than enough time on your plate.

Do you roll right out of bed first thing in the morning, or does that snooze button get hit a few dozen times before you exit your bed?

Photo Credit to QuickMeme.com

Don’t want to come into the office an hour early to study, then give up a day of your weekends. By concentrating 8 hours a weekend from here until the test time you could easily get in over 120 hours of study time.

There’s a 100 ways to skin a cat… but they’re really too cute to do such a horrific thing.

How to stick to your PE exam study time plan?

Your poison is picked, and you’re being honest with your ability to actually study. Now what?

Grab your phone, and schedule your time.

Tell your friends, work associates, significant others. Ask them, to help you stick to your plan. Explain the benefits, how much it means to you, and that you’ll buy the first round if they can help you actually pass the PE exam.

If your friends aren’t good enough to understand you can’t go out with them every time they feel the need for a vodka redbull… they’re kinda just ass holes (don’t worry, we all have those friends… I might even have been described as that friend from time to time… I’m so misunderstood).

It just might be best to avoid those friends for a few months.

April will be here soon enough. And come June you’ll be finding out that you’re now a professional engineer.

Congrats!

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About the Author

I've been helping engineers pass the PE exam in less time for over 3 years now. In my professional life I design fuel systems for large airports and trucking companies. I love travel, writing, and helping others.